Monday, March 31, 2008

I'm thrilled to report that Love... By The Book received a Four Angel review from Fallen Angel Reviews. This story asks the question: Can an ancient Hindu sex manual turn an arranged marriage into a love match?

"Love...By the Book is a scintillating mix of lust and sexual exploration. Lydia’s character has the typical ideals of the time period. Marriage is for convenience not for passion or love, no matter what she truly longs for on the inside. Evan is sexy, yet his character has a wonderfully tender side. Evan wants to learn to make Lydia enjoy marriage as much as he intends to. He shows her just how hot marriage can be. The two characters are white hot together. The sexual scenes are scorching. Ms. Lamont has done a very nice job of bringing a bit of the exotic into her writing. I look forward to reading more." - Dawnie, Fallen Angel Reviews

When I decided to write a story involving The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, I did some research and discovered that the book is almost 2,000 years old. Written in Sanskrit, it wasn’t translated and published in English until 1883 by the famous explorer, Sir Richard Burton. Once I’d decided to write a historical-set story, I found a copy of his translation and started reading. It's a fascinating mix of sexual instruction and advice on courtship, combined with quaint superstitions of the period in which it was written.

Hindu society of the time was patriarchal and some of the advice is ridiculous by today’s standards. People also married very young at the time, so I suppose it’s no wonder that the advice for how the woman should behave sounds very juvenile by today’s standards. In one section, Vatsyayana, who was a monk, actually recommends kidnapping the prospective bride if all else fails. Something my civilized English hero would never do. Still, some of the courtship advice is timeless.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the Kama Sutra:

"The man who is ingenious and wise, who is accompanied by a friend, and who knows the intentions of others, as also the proper time and place for doing everything, can gain over, very easily, even a woman who is very hard to be obtained.”

"Says Ghotakamukha, 'Though a man loves a girl ever so much, he never succeeds in winning her without a great deal of talking.'"

“. . . the man should do whatever the girl takes most delight in, and he should get for her whatever she may have a desire to possess.”

Evan takes that advice to heart when he buys his bride a brand new piano and plans a honeymoon in the country rather than staying in the city.

Even though he was a monk, Vatsyayana had a romantic streak:

"If men and women act according to each other's liking, their love for each other will not be lessened even in one hundred years."

Love... By The Book was released by Amber Heat in November and is available at by electronic download at http://www.amberheat.com.*

Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the Celular, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://telefone-celular-brasil.blogspot.com. A hug.

Thanks for your kind comments, but I don't read Portuguese and I don't think most of my readers do, either.

Sorry,

Linda

Celular said,

Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the Celular, I hope you enjoy.

Kama Sutra-- wowza, 2000 years old, and people still enjoy reading it and also reading about it. Linda, a friend of mine who reviews for Romance Junkies told me that one of your books was on a list (for reviewers to snag) and was only there for an hour! -Kathleen (By the way I have no idea why google/Blogger won't take my name-- guess I don't have one on google/Blogger, ha ha)

Okay. Dumb question here... what is the difference between html, pdf, lit, RB and Mobi (PRC)? I am going to download it onto a desktop and print it out so I can read it away from the computer (like on the plane to Alabama). Which would be the best version?

LOL, yep, the KS is still hot after 2,000 years. Of course, pictures help, which Burton's version didn't have.

Thanks for telling me about the ebook at RJ getting snapped up. I haven't been reviewed by them for a while.

I guess you don't have a Blogger account and that's why you're always anonymous.

Linda

>Kama Sutra-- wowza, 2000 years old, and people still enjoy reading it and also reading about it. Linda, a friend of mine who reviews for Romance Junkies told me that one of your books was on a list (for reviewers to snag) and was only there for an hour! -Kathleen (By the way I have no idea why google/Blogger won't take my name-- guess I don't have one on google/Blogger, ha ha)<